News Presentation in Class as an Activity to Teach Integrated Skills in EFL in Africa (Published)
To make their learners achieve good competency in second or foreign language, teachers need to be careful in the choice of techniques, approaches and activities they use. Unfortunately, many teachers and course books separate the four macro skills in their teaching approach. The language which should be seen as a whole is taught in a segregated way, i. e. with whole lessons / sessions on listening, speaking, reading or writing skills. Language, whose prime objective is communication, is thus compartmentalised and leads to poor users. A good reader, listener or writer of a language is not necessarily a competent user of it in real communication situations. This paper proposes the presentation of news in class as an activity to integrate the four macro skills in teaching English as a Foreign Language. It is an exercise which involves the active participation of the whole class, considerably reduces the teacher talking time while increasing that of the learners.
Keywords: Integrated Skills, Listening, News, Participation, Reading, Speaking, writing
English Language Teachers Attitudes about Their Contribution in Curriculum Process in the Saudi Education System (Published)
In Saudi Arabia curriculum designing and development is always performed by the educational authority the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately, teachers’ voices are completely ignored, although they are the principle role-players in the educational process. Teachers, on their part, have practical knowledge based on their daily work with the students. This knowledge is useful because teachers can assess whither the new ideas will work in the classroom. In the current study the researcher investigated the teachers’ viewpoints on their participation in the curriculum design process. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data from the samples. The results showed that teachers have positive attitudes about their participation in the curriculum designing process
Keywords: Curriculum Design, Participation, Syllabus, Teachers